Nine Beaches has laid off seven staff as a result of the economic downturn, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

The exclusive resort has made six Bermudians and one guest worker redundant who would normally have been kept on during the close season between December 1 and April 1.

But general manager Robin Gilbert said the cut backs were necessary in the tough current financial climate, however he hoped to take some of them back on in February to March before the resort's reopening next year.

"Normally most of our staff go off during the period we are shut anyway," he said.

"This year, certainly because of the current financial and economic situation, we had decided to unfortunately take a few people off who would normally have been paid and worked through the winter.

"It is regrettable and we had to do it, but unfortunately it is a sign of the times."

Mr. Gilbert said the redundancies were across the board, including the grounds staff, maintenance department, food and beverage manager and housekeeper, but planned to get a number of them on board along with the resort's regular employees around mid-February.

"It takes about a month to start up again for the new season," he said.

"We are spread out over 18 acres of property, so there is a lot of work that needs to be done ahead of time - we really need about four to six weeks to get things up and running and to make everything spick and span."

However Mr. Gilbert said there was reason to be optimistic for the future, with the resort already taking a number of reservations for 2010 and a potential for even more with the trend of holidaymakers making their bookings much closer to the time of their vacation nowadays.

Furthermore, he revealed that Nine Beaches had been voted Bermuda's No.2 resort on Trip Advisor, a fact he was rightly proud of, with several of the website's users choosing the resort based on the favourable ratings.

"We are reasonably optimistic for the future," he said.

"It is going to be very difficult and as any business we have to watch our costs and provide the very best service at the most reasonable cost to us as we can."